THE RIGHT NOTION OF HONOUR: As it was delivered in a SERMON BEFORE THE KING. At NEWMARKET, Octob. 4. 1674. Published by his Majesty's special Command. WITH ANNOTATIONS: The Contents whereof are in the following Leaf. By NATH. VINCENT, D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty, and Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge.  
LONDON, Printed for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Churchyard. MDCLXXXV.   

The Contents of the Annotations.  
THE occasion of publishing this Discourse, after its suppression for so many years.  
A sure Expedient for attaining the greatest Honour.  
This conception proved agreeable to the Divine Oeconomy, in several Particulars.  
An account of the excellent Life, and a Specimen of the admirable Morals, of that old Chinese Philosopher Cumfusu. Wherein we find the happy influence of the Natural, and the Improved sense of Honour, upon the Manners of that People, and the Prosperity of their Empire, in ancient times.  
The contrary Sentiments of Ambitious, Revengeful or Mistaken Men, represented in Historical Parallels between the old Politic Frights of Tyranny and Slavery in other Countries, and the like seditious Clamours among ourselves in the late Rebellion.   

HOnestatem voco intelligibilem pulchritudinem. S. August. Honestum idem quod decorum spirituale. Dionys. de Diu. Nomin. Formam ipsam & tanquam faciem honesti vides, quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores, ut ait Plato, excitaret sapientiae. Cic. Caesar cum quosdam ornare voluit, non ipsos honestavit, sed ornamenta ipsa turpavit. Idem.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hierocl.  
See the last Particular of the Sermon.   
PSAL. VIII. part of Verse v.— And hast crowned Him with Glory and Honour. 
THOUGH there is not any thing in the World, that hath been always more valued and desired than Honour, yet there is nothing that has been so little understood, and explicated. True Honour does answer the Esteem that hath been always set upon it. It is the best of our attainments in this Life: Nay, it is all we can return to God himself, for all the Blessings he heaps upon us. Next under God, our greatest Obligations are to our Prince, and to our Parents: Now the Honour we pay to the Fathers of our Country, for the security of our Persons and Fortunes, and to those that bred us for our Nurture and Education, is the fullest Account of our Duty to both. Our Labours, Hardships, and Dangers; the sharpest Pains, the cruelest Tortures, the worst of Deaths we can undergo, have no greater temporal Reward than Honour. When God Almighty would make a Creature, as happy as any thing could be, lower than an Angel, he created Adam: of whom the Psalmist says, That his Maker gave him Dominion over the Works of his Hands, and put all things in subjection under his Feet. In short, He made him a King, and crowned him upon his Birthday, he crowned him with Glory and Honour.  
The Psalmist in this place describing the infinite Goodness of God, in creating Man after his own Image, and in repairing afterwards that Image in him, calls His original Righteousness, and the Supplies of Grace after the Fall, his Honour. For as we call the Perfections of the Divine Nature, to which we own our Being and Happiness, the Honour of God; so the Integrity and the Renovation of humane Nature, are the Honour of Man, because they make him capable of doing good. An Honour so great, that to express it fully, the Original reads the former parts of the Verse thus, Thou hast made him little lower (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) than God, or almost a God. Now as we call the infinite Perfections of God, and the Moral or Religious Excellencies of Man, their Honour, upon account of the Benefits conferred by God upon Man, and by good Men upon their fellow Creatures, so is it likewise in the case of Temporal, Secondary, Imperfect Honour. Humane Authority, Power and Greatness is called Honour, because it seems to imply and suppose in the Possessors, those Perfections which tend to the Use, Benefit, and Welfare of Mankind. Thus Magistrates, even when they are corrupt, are honoured, because by their Station and Condition, they are in many respects useful, and have always more Power and better Opportunities of doing good than inferior Persons: From whose better Resolutions, for the time to come, we cannot expect so much of public Benefit. For this Reason, when Noblemen are dissolute, our Parents vicious, the Aged profligate, there is still something of Respect, and Honour due to them, though the Proportion of it is strangely lessened, by their defects and miscarriages. That which I have here undertaken, is to give an account of Honour, both in its best Sense, and in its largest Extent. To which purpose I conclude, That Honour is the greatest Excellency both of uncreated and finite Nature, that we form our Apprehensions of any Excellency according to its Title to Esteem, and that we have the highest and most just Esteem of those Perfections by which we are most of all relieved, supplied, assisted and comforted. What I have been hitherto describing, I thus define; True Honour is eminent and beneficial Goodness attested: And in the common imperfect Notion of it, It is any degree, capacity, or resemblance of signalised Worth.  
This Definition, as it comprehends the Particulars of my following Discourse, so it serves us to make a Judgement of those two Conceptions of Honour, which are as distant in their Sense, as their Age in the World. The one is old, the other very new: the former is from Plato, Aristotle, and their Followers; the latter from the Leviathan and his Disciples. According to the old Notion, it is nothing but a Mark or Inscription upon supposed Goodness: According to the new one, It is only an Instance, or Argument of Power. Honourable, says the Leviathan, is whatsoever Possession, Action or Quality, is an Argument and Sign of Power. His Comment is as bad as his Text, for he goes on thus. Covetousness of great Riches, and Ambition of great Honours, are Honourable; as signs of Power to obtain them. Nor does it alter the case of Honour, whether an Action (so it be great and difficult, and consequently a sign of much Power) be just or unjust: For Honour consisteth only in the Opinion of Power. For proof of this, he mentions the fabulous Rapes and Thefts of the Heathen Gods, and he says, That till there were constituted great Commonwealths, it was thought no dishonour to be a Pirate, or a Highway-Thief.  
Now he that makes Power to be the Foundation of Right, must make Honour to be the effect of Power, though never so ill gotten. When an Usurper is to be upheld and defended; Injustice, Violence, Ambition, Cruelty, Theft, Murder, Sacrilege and Oppression, must be of his Lifeguard. I must needs say, That although the old Opinion of Honour is defective, it is far more tolerable than this Novel and lewd Extravagancy.  
Would we then know what is to be understood by true and solid Honour, we must be instructed by the Principles of Religion, and not the bare Dictates of Natural Reason; we must learn it from the School of Christ, and not of Plato, Aristotle, or any other, and worse Philosopher. So that the Heads of my following Discourse will be these two Particulars.  
I. According to the Opinion most Men have of Honour, it is either nothing at all, or a very slight; empty, imaginary business.  
II. The Christian Institution does give us the only true account of Honour, and doth advance us to the highest degrees of it.  
I. For the first Particular, It is certain, that Honour is a greater reality than most People make it. It must be something more than what it is represented to be by the Leviathan-Philosophy, if there be any such thing in Nature. For Power alone, and as it is distinguished from Goodness, is no sign or instance of Honour.  
Power opposed to Goodness is no Perfection, or Excellency. If Greatness were nothing more than the Commission of great Robberies at Land, or Piracies at Sea, the Ambition of great Honours, the Covetousness of great Riches, the Gratification of Envy, Malice, Revenge and Cruelty; the worst of Creatures would be the most Honourable, and the Prince of Darkness would be the greatest Prince in Nature.  
Power, when it is injurious and hurtful, when it is employed in the Oppression of those it should preserve, is no real excellency. To destroy and ruin is the basest and most degenerate Action that the worst of Men, and even the Devil himself can be guilty of.  
The Being and Welfare of Mankind are the Reasons of that Honour we pay unto the Author and the Instruments thereof. But if to destroy and oppress is unworthy and misbecoming a generous Mind; the Power so to do, abstractly considered, can never be Honourable; nor plead a Title to the Significations of that kind Esteem and beneficial Opinion in which external Honour does consist.  
So that Honour is just the contrary to what the Leviathan would make it. It must he something else than what he calls by that Name, or there is no such thing in Nature. And indeed, as it is better described by the Schoolmen, and their Masters the old Philosophers, we can never make any thing of it, that we can call substantial and solid.  
As I do not give the name of real Honour to any Excellency that is only the Foundation or Reason of it, so neither can I grant that Appellation to the Externals of it, to that respect and deference which is often paid, where it is not at all due. I call Honour attested Goodness, since in the best common account of it, it is only 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arist. Rhet. l. 1. c. 5.  a sign or proof that others think well of us; and so Honour shall be sometimes given, not for the sake of any good Actions, but only of a Power or Obligation to perform them.  
It is commonly said to have its being in those that pay it, and not in those that receive it. It is something, belike, we call ours, which we can neither command nor secure; our own undoubted Right, that is always possessed and disposed of by other People.  
According to these Men, it is only a splendid Slavery, or a Mass of uncertain Riches; a dangerous Trust, or a barren Title; a Formality, a Show, a Ceremony, an Inscription; the late reward of macerating Study, or of the cruel hardships of the Camp; the easy Spoil of Flattery, Malice, Ambition or Avarice; not so often conferred upon known Merit, as revoked upon Mistake or Prejudice: the mark of the Envious, and the frequent purchase of the Undeserving; though long expected, and gained with Labour, Care, and Toil, yet quickly forfeited by Negligence, Passion, Mischance, or Indiscretion.  
Now Honour, which is the most valuable Enjoyment in this World, and which, in its Perfection, is the Blessedness of the World to come; that which is the greatest Gift we can receive from God or Man, must certainly amount to something more than we can find in the foregoing Description of it. Which brings me to the second Particular.  
II. The Christian Institution doth give us the only true account of Honour, and does advance us to the highest Degrees of it. It shows us what Honour is in God, and in Man.  
I. We are instructed by the heavenly Doctrines of our Religion, in the Nature and Reasons of that Honour we render unto God. It is observed, that the Greatness of earthly Potentates concerns only their Subjects and Allies, those they protect or assist, and is not regarded by the Inhabitants of far distant Countries.  
Honour is never paid as a just Debt, but to those Excellencies by which Mankind is some way or other bettered, profited, or endeared. The Excellencies of the Divine Nature do then only affect and ravish us, when we consider that we own our Happiness, Preservation, and Being, to them. We therefore adore and reverence the Divine Goodness, Bounty, and Mercy, because we are thereby not only redeemed from infinite Misery, but surrounded with innumerable Blessings.  
God Almighty never appeared with so much Glory in the World, as when in the second Person of the Trinity, he condescended for the recovery of Mankind, to take our Nature upon him, and to humble himself even unto the Death of the Cross.  
When the Son of God came down from Heaven, the way he took to illustrate his Glory, was by doing the greatest Good, and by making Peace between God and Man. When he was to prove his Divinity, he wrought not one Miracle, only to surprise and astonish the Beholders, not one that did not show he was sent to bring Health and Salvation to the Sons of Men, and to be the great Example, and effectual Promoter, of Goodness and Piety.  
This was the end of the Creation, for this reason did the Heavens declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament show his Handiwork, that the manifestation of his Goodness might be the Glory of his Power.  
He framed the World by his omnipotent Hand, not that his Creatures should for ever stand gazing, wondering and amusing themselves at his Power, but that they should be led on by the consideration of it to admire his Goodness.  
He is unchangeable in his Nature, and cannot receive any Additions to his Glory and Happiness, by all our Praises and Services. This therefore was his Motive, That it was a proper Work, an action hugely befitting, suitable and congruous to infinite Goodness, to communicate, discover and manifest itself, in the exercise of that immense Wisdom and Power with which it is joined.  
Finite Beings were not created upon account of any Use, Benefit, or new Satisfaction to their Maker, who was entirely happy from all Eternity, in the Contemplation of himself, and the infinite Ravishments of his inexpressibly-glorious Nature. But he spoke us into Being, and exercised his Almighty Power in the Production of all things, because it was the most natural Use of inexhaustible Goodness, to diffuse, open and exert itself in all the Varieties of the greatest Love, and the wisest Contrivance: To the end he might behold in every Region, through the vast Tracts of Nature, ten thousand times ten thousand Myriads of Representations, and clear Images of his boundless Goodness: That he might not only be entertained at the dawning of the World, with those first Anthems in the Celebration of his glorious Bounty by the Sons of the Morning, and with the Adorations, Praises and Thanksgivings of his Church throughout all Ages of the World; but likewise by all the bright Legions of Angels, by all the Companions of the glorified Order, by the whole Choir of Heaven, enthroned Martyrs, rejoicing Sufferers, triumphant Captives, crowned Saints, comforted Mourners, and the Spirits of just Men made perfect; ascribing 
Rev. 4. 11. c. 5. 13. c. 19 1.  Honour, Salvation, Blessing, Glory and Power unto our God for ever and ever.  
Thus we see that Honour in God, so far as it commands the due regard of intelligent Beings, is the Manifestation of the Divine Goodness in our Temporal or Eternal Happiness.  
2. Christianity alone does rightly inform us, what Honour is in Man: Namely, that it is both the reward and the discharge of his Duty.  
(1.) Honour in Man is the reward of his Duty, either in this World, or in the next. It is here, the Benefit that accrues to us from the good Opinion of wise and good Men; it is what we gain by our Moral or Religious Excellencies, by our Services in the Church or in the State; in the Court or in the Camp; by our Tongues or Hands; by our Pens or Swords.  
It is the Prince's Favour, the sense of good Laws, the munificence of Founders and Benefactors, in the encouragement of that virtuous Industry to which the corrupted Nature of Man is of all things the most averse.  
In reference to the other World, Honour is that Goodness which does entitle us to the Divine Favour and Acceptance; whereby we are admitted into the nearest Relation unto himself; by which good Men become his adopted Children, a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood, not Servants only, which is Honour enough, but the Sons of the most High, and more than that, Kings and Priests unto God: Hereby they receive the Inheritance as well as the Adoption of Sons, and the Kingdom prepared for them, from the beginning of the World; immortal Honour, and an exceeding weight of Glory.  
(2.) Honour is not only the Reward, but it is likewise the discharge and exemplary Performance of our Duty. Honour, (quite contrary to what the Leviathan asserts) is that quality or action which is a sign of extraordinary Goodness. To turn his Words, I assert the contempt of great Riches, and the refusal of great Honours to be Honourable, as they are Signs of that unusual Goodness which does at the same time both deserve and despise them.  
The Hebrew words for Glory and Honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify a recommendable quality and endowment, as well as Promotion or Ornament. The latter without the former is the least part of Nobility; which is then complete and perfect, when Power and Goodness meet together.  
We therefore find in S. Paul's Instructions 
1 Tim. 5. 17.  to Timothy, That there is a greater Reverence due to our Superiors, than what their mere Power and Authority requires of us; That the Elders who rule well are to be counted worthy of double Honour. In the sight of God, and the opinion of all good Men, Persons of Honour are far less noble by their Birth, and the highest Extraction, than by Virtue and humble Piety.  
Upon this account it is; that in the History of the Patriarches, Japhet the eldest Son of Noah, is thrust down beneath his two younger Brothers, and Sem the second Son is named and reputed as the Eldest. For this reason Abraham was named before Haran the eldest Son of Terah, Isaac was set before Ishmael, and Jacob advanced above his elder Brother Esau. Hence it was, that Jacob, in Blessing his Sons, laid his right Hand upon Ephraim's Head, who was the Younger, and his left upon Manasseh the firstborn.  
When Aristotle bequeathed to the Schools the common received Notion of Honour, he taught the World to believe that Honour has its being 
(a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Eth. Nicom. c.  rather in those that yield it, than in the Persons honoured. When he maintained this, he had a regard only to the Ceremonies, the attire and externals of Honour, not to the Foundation and Original, the Reasons and genuine Causes of it. For he adds at the same time 
(b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Eth. Nicon. c. 3. , that People seem to pursue Honour in hopes to be accounted good Men.  
He says, that 
(c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  in all those things or actions which are justly rewarded with Honour, there is Honesty and Virtue. This he delivers as a plain Demonstration, and makes it 
(d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Rhet. l. 1. c. 9  a necessary Consequence, for Virtue to be honourable. He shows us with great acuteness, the nature and connexion of Honour and Virtue, when he determines the former to be 
(e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. l. 1. c. 5.  the proof of an opinion in others, which is a benefit to ourselves, and the latter to be that 
(f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. l. 1. c. 9  Power in us whereby we are beneficial unto others. They are 
(g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. l. 1. c. 5.  honoured (says he) in Justice, and in the highest degree, that do good in the World: But yet still the Man is honoured that has the Power of doing Good.  
These Sentiments of Aristotle have passed for sound Divinity among the Scholastic Doctors: who tell us, That bad Governors and vicious Parents are to be honoured, as they have the Stamp, Commission, or Authority of Almighty God: That Nobility and Age are honourable, merely as Signs or Resemblances of that Virtue, which is the eternal Reason of Honour.  
So that when the forementioned Qualifications are wanting, than it is that Men give Honour where Honour is not due, then are they guilty of the old Idolatry of throwing Stones to Mercury's Heap, reproved by (b) Solomon; and S. Paul's respect 
(h) Prov. 25.  of Persons.  
This we are taught even by Nature itself; for all Mankind hath naturally something of the Nation, as well as of the Sense and Desire of Honour. There is an old Pagan Empire on the further side of Asia, where the Religion and Learning, which they had for above two thousand years, was to study the repair of Humane Nature, the perfection of Government, and the Reasons of Honour. Their Emperor (whom they styled the Son of Heaven) was for the most part a Philosopher, and always a very improved Person. Their Nobility was not from Families, but from Wisdom and Knowledge: And as Men grew eminent for their Intellectual and Moral Endowments, so they were accordingly enriched and preferred.  
There are Instances enough from whence we may conclude, that by attending to the sound Dictates of Reason, we may raise ourselves to greater Honour, than by any other Methods, besides Christian Piety, and the most ennobling Precepts of our Religion. Which is the last Particular.  
2. As the Doctrine of our Saviour gives us the truest Account of Honour, so its due Practice does advance us to the highest degrees of it. As our natural Principles of Justice, Honesty, and Goodness, were our first embellishment, so the recovery and improvement of them, by the Grace of the Gospel, is the highest degree of Honour that mortal Man can arrive at.  
That which is the greatest Perfection, is likewise the greatest Ornament of Humane Nature.  
Upon this account it was, that 
(a) Plato in Alcib. Conviv. Phadr.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, among the Greeks, and 
(b) Frigidus & Sylvis Aquilo decussit honorem. Virg. Georg. 2. Hunc virum bonum dixisti, & honoris causa appellasti Cic. pro Q. R.  Honour with the Latins were used to signify both Honesty and Beauty. For as the clearness of the Complexion, and the proportion of Parts, is the Beauty of the Body; so the Purity of the Mind, and the Harmony, or correspondence of our Actions to the Principles of Reason and Religion, is not only the Beauty, and charming sweetness of the Soul, but an Honour like that which we pay unto God himself.  
Such is the Beauty of Holiness, so lovely are the Features of Goodness, that it is admired by all the World, and the very worst of men; like the innocence of its Divine Author, to which Pilate bore witness, when he sacrificed it to the malice of the Jews.  
On the other hand, there is nothing so foul, misshapen, and ugly as Sin, there is no Monster so deformed, no Beast so filthy; could we see it in all its lineaments, we should find it more hideous than the Devil himself in his worst shape; it is far more black than it was ever yet painted.  
But now the everlasting Righteousness of the Gospel does ennoble and raise us as many Degrees above Nature, as the attainments of Nature and Reason all one can advance us above the level of Beasts.  
By the conduct of Reason we are brought to the Honour of being temperate, liberal, just, merciful, kind, and faithful: But by our Christian Institution, and the guidance of the Spirit of Grace, it is our Glory, and Crown of rejoicing, that we do not only abstain from the filthiness of the Flesh, but the uncleanness of the Spirit; that we are so far from invading what is our Neighbours, that we do not so much as look upon it with a covetous, or impure Eye: That we can be kind where we expect no return, and love others besides our Friends, and pity those Enemies which other Men hate.  
When Sin had filled the World with Contention, Fierceness, and Cruelty; when the Teeth of the old Serpent that were sown in the accursed Earth, had sprung up in a Race of Men that were all in Arms against one another; how glorious was that Christian Charity that could forgive an Injury, do good to an Enemy, pray for a Persecutor, and relieve an impoverished Oppressor!  
Surely there is no Honour in this World so great as to desire, contrive and promote the Welfare of all Mankind: to be concerned like the Providence of God, for the good of the whole Creation.  
That Christian Charity which thinketh no evil, is more glorious, as well as more lasting, than all the greatness of this World: Nay, the Glory which shall be revealed hereafter, is not worthy to be compared unto it, for that will but make us like unto the Angels, this will make us like unto God.  
Such Honour have all good men in the most private Capacity, which one would think sufficient to satisfy any pardonable Ambition, and yet it is not to be named with the Glory of Pious Greatness.  
The Virtues of Princes and Grandees, are the greatest Temporal Blessings to Mankind. Our Saviour speaking of the Kings of the Gentiles, says, they were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Benefactors. Such, they always are, or aught to be.  
They that govern should be eminently bountiful and Pious. The World had been a foul reproach to him that made it, if when he erected the Government of it, he had not given Power, Credit, and Superiority to Goodness, and debased wickedness by the distinct Characters of shame and hatred.  
Had the Almighty committed the Government of the World to the monstrous Leviathan; had Violence been the Rule and Standard of humane Affairs; had Cruelty been allowable, and Rapine just, the World had quickly been tumbled into the Confusions of its first Chaos.  
It is the Glory of good Princes and Potentates, that they are the Instruments of the Divine Providence in preserving Mankind from those Desolations, into which their wild Passions would certainly plunge them.  
That the World might subsist, when Sin had discomposed it, God was pleased to ordain and separate some particular Men for the conduct and protection of the rest: to be more his Image, than others of the same Race: to represent him after a more lively manner in that Goodness to which we own our Being and Preservation; and withal to derive and convey it unto those, who continually depend upon it.  
The World is upheld, and the order of things maintained by the Charity and good Offices of good Men to one another: not of all good Men alike, but of those more especially, who were born for that very end of a better Race, and were sent into the World better stocked with generous Principles than other People. They are of that strain, where the Men are Valiant and Just, and the Women , out of a Sense of the Obligations they lay under by their very Birth and Extraction. They are Persons whose natural Elevation of mind withholds them from sordid Advantages, and base Pleasures.  
Justice and Charity, Mercy and Pity, Love and Benignity, are as great Ornaments to ourselves, as Benefits to others. But these excellent Virtues are never so beneficial to the World, as when they are improved into Christian Graces, and are the Fruits of the Spirit.  
It is the truest and highest Nobility for Men to be as great in their Piety, as in their Stations; to have the good report of a good Conscience, and not to blot their Escutcheons by staining their Christian Profession.  
When Princes execute Justice and Judgement, when they deliver the Oppressed, and assert the Cause of the Innocent: when they are nursing Fathers to the Church of Christ, a terror to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well, when they walk before God with a perfect Heart, and whilst they are enthroned upon Earth, have their Conversation in Heaven, than it is that they are Crowned with Glory and Honour.  
Now to the King Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, be Honour and Glory for ever and ever, Amen.   

ANNOTATIONS.  
PAge 15. The Munificence of Founders and Benefactors, etc.  
When His Majesty was pleased to command the Printing of the foregoing Sermon; the mistake of some Persons, and the ill will of others, furnished the Author with an Allowed Excuse.  
The undeserved Usage he then met with, and his continual Discouragements ever since, have so far unfit him to appear in the World; that the Preacher, and his Notes, had still lain hid together in the same Closet, had not the Sense of his Obligations to the College that bred, and maintains him, prevailed above that of his many Defects, and the great Honour of obeying the King, in a Command, that was equally indulgent and dispensable.  
He had no other Motive to the Publication of these Papers, neither did he need any other, than the desire of his honoured and worthy Colleagues, to recommend in a printed Epistle, the present attempt to finish our fair Building; and our design of a College Hall, of which great convenience we have as yet no more than the bare Foundation.  
To which purpose, that our Paper-Messenger may find his way to all the liberal Hands in the Nation, he is furnished with a Guide, and Fellow Travellers. Or else this first Note, for the sake of which the rest were communicated, as well as the Discourse to which they all belong, may pass for a Use of Exhortation at the end of the Sermon; as it urges the best practice of our Duty, and the noblest Exercise of Honour; in the following Periods.  

A General Address to all bountiful Encouragers of Religion and Learning, in the behalf of Clare-Hall in Cambridge: which remains half built, after all the endeavours of the Society for more than Forty years to finish it.  
OUR College, which as to its Antiquity, is the Second in the University, hath from the very Age in which it was Founded, been always Unhappy, either in the Ruins, or the Defects of its Building. It did at one time suffer so much by Fire, that a very considerable part of it (wherein were the Master's Lodgings, the Treasury, and what was therein reposited of greatest Value) was to the irreparable damage of the College consumed.  
But long before that time, and when it had numbered but sixteen years, the whole Fabric was by a casual Fire burnt to the ground. This occasioned the resigning of its first Foundation by Richard Badew (as the University Tables relate more particularly) into the hands of the incomparable Lady Elizabeth de Burgo, one of the three Coheiresses of Gilbert the last Earl of Clare and Gloucester, who bestowed upon the then ruined Society a new College, and upon the College, unendowed before, such fair Revenues, as justly required that it should be called for ever after by her own Excellent Name.  
But yet the most valuable part of a College, a Chapel, was wanting for above two hundred years; till the Society had by their good Husbandry saved so much Money, as with the Gift of a hundred Pounds built one, with a fair Library over it.  
Within another hundred years, what our Foundress built for us decayed: part of it fell down: and that the College and its Inhabitants might not be buried together in the same Ruins, that new and unfinished Fabric we now enjoy was begun: of which, (to justify Scholars, against those that charge them with Luxury and Profuseness) at least one half was erected, with that Stock which many years' frugality had treasured up; and with that Credit, which brought indeed a heavy Debt upon the College, but which, by the wary management of our Revenue, we have since discharged. The other, and greater part was built by the Contribution of some large, and many small Sums: by which charitable assistance we had fair hopes of finishing our College, had we not been prevented by the late Troubles.  
Since His Majesty's Happy Restauration, we have obtained an Addition; upon which, and the Avenues of our College, we have expended above two thousand Pounds. And yet we have still got no farther than half our Building, in the completing whereof, we are now engaged.  
We have begun with our own private Subscriptions: but we are unable to proceed, without those liberal aids from abroad, which (without considering either the former products of our Education, or our future usefulness to the Public, or the ornament we shall add to the University, or the general satisfaction we shall hereby give to Scholars, and all that favour them) the Beauty and Elegancy of our Building alone, without the help of other Topics, does beg with more Rhetoric, than we ourselves can ever command.  
In this Affair, we do at once both importune and serve our Friends, whilst we offer to their Improvement the best of Opportunities. For as there is no disposal of Wealth so commendable, so there is none so necessary, as that we now solicit.  
Since Piety, and useful Knowledge are of greater Consequence to the Welfare of Mankind, than any thing in the World besides: that ingenuous liberality which is necessary to the support of them, is the clearest proof of Christian sincerity, and as much our Privilege as our Duty. Since we are Debtors to Heaven for all that we are, and have; our right is undeniably forfeited, nay, and our Possession too is endangered, when we fail in those expressions of Thankfulness, which are all the return we can make, but are no part of Payment without the Divine Acceptilation even of the easy condition which entitles us to the satisfaction of our Redeemer, which does at once both discharge and renew our Debt, which makes the least offering an acceptable Sacrifice, and our perishing Riches to become an immortal Treasure.  
Since we have so high a value for Wealth, and are so very unwilling to part with it, when it is against our Interest to keep it, and when we are forced to leave it; propitious Heaven, in the Opportunities of pious Munificence, has put it into our Power to be always Rich. This is the way to receive the greatest Benefit from our most dangerous Enemy Wealth, which lays retrenched in the Bowels of the Earth, as if it were conscious to its self of the innumerable Mischiefs it hath done, by its Sallies into the open World.  
For Persons of great Estates and Fortunes, to make no other returns of all their Plenty, but in those shameful Excesses which Beasts are never guilty of, is that which every Man, while he continues a Man, condemns: for the Wealthy to provide freely for their present harmless Satisfaction, and for the future happy Subsistence of their Offspring, is what Nature, allowably enough, does suggest: but for these Persons, while they design their Contentment, not to forget their Safety; while they study the happiness of their Heirs, to think of their own, and to bestow, at least one Legacy upon their better part, is what Christian Wisdom does with the highest Reason dictate.  
So that if rich Men desire the satisfaction of the best and truest Improvement of their Fortunes, if they would do all the good they can both to themselves and others; the greatest temporal Good they can receive, by the consent of all the wise Men that ever lived in the World, is the Honour that is gotten by good Actions; and the greatest good they can ever hope to do, is that disposal of their Wealth, which upholds and cherishes the two best things of this World, Piety and Learning: whereby the truly Charitable will have the Happiness, not only of future and infinite Recompenses, but they will likewise attain that end, which is always the meaning, but never the effect of paternal Fondness, an Immortality here upon Earth.  
By this means they will inherit the just esteem of wise Men, of such as know how to use their Fortunes, and that do not love their Money better than themselves. They will continue in this World, even when they are possessed of a better, and by their bountiful Donations, they will, in all succeeding Ages, still remain here, exercising the greatest Charity, that is, instructing the Ignorant, reclaiming the Vicious, and relieving the Necessitous.  
The fair Monuments of their Piety will outlast all others: and if the World should happen to survive them, yet the Memory of them will not be lost till Charity itself shall fail. Their excellent names will not then be buried, when they shall become too great a weight for the Pillars that bear them: they must needs live, being repeated thrice every year in public and solemn Commemorations, with the greatest Honour that can be paid them by ingenuous Men; in a Society collected from the distant parts of our own Country, from whence their Charity and Fame will be carried or sent abroad to all others, and sent down to all Posterity; with the Sculpture of our Building, the History of our Benefactors, and with the just, sincere, and eternal Acknowledgements of  
The Master, and Fellows of Clare-Hall.   

PAge 17. Japhet the eldest Son of Noah, etc. We cannot conclude the respective Ages of the Sons of Noah, from the Order in which they are named. For then Ham would be the second Son. But that he was the youngest is plain from Gen. 9 where it is related v. 22. That when Ham saw the nakedness of his Father, he told his two Brethren without: and v. 24. That when Noah awoke from his Wine, he knew what his younger Son had done unto him.  
Neither can Sem be the firstborn. For Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood came upon the Earth, Gen. 7. 6. He was five hundred years old when he begat his eldest Son, Gen. 5. 32. The Son whom at that Age he begat, could not be Sem; for he was not an hundred years old, till two years after the Deluge, Gen. 11. v. 10.  
Forasmuch then as Noah's eldest Son was an hundred years old when he entered the Ark, and Sem was then but ninety eight; it follows evidently that Japhet must be the eldest of the Sons of Noah.  
These Particulars are confirmed by the general Sense of the Jewish Doctors. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says R. Solomon Jarchi, of the Sons of Noah, Japhet the last named, is the eldest. But there is better Authority for the Assertion. The Septuagint Version says it expressly, Gen. 10. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. They here call Japhet in the plainest words can be spoken, the elder Brother of Sem. Flaminius Nobilius having compared the Copies of the Septuagint, reports their Agreement in this reading.  
Neither is it only in Pagnin, Arias Montanus, Tremellius, the Polyglot Interlineary, and our last English Translation, The Brother of Japhet the Elder; but the Sense, Propriety, and constant Grammatical Construction of the Hebrew do fully prove it. For when these words are to be expressed in the Holy Language, Sem the elder Brother of Japhet, it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ But if we will have the forementioned words to be the English of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall never be able to find, in any part of the Scripture, the like Interpretation: much less can we tell how the Hebrew should express those last words of this Text any other way, without departing from its Idiom, or involving its Sense in an ambiguous Phrase.   

PAge 19 Throwing of Stones to Mercury 's Heap. If we inquire what Mercury's Heap was, we shall see what Reasons S. Hierom had for this rendering of Prov. 26. 8. Sicut qui mittit lapidem in acervum Mercurii: ita qui tribuit honorem insipienti. Whom our English, according to its usual regard to him, should thus follow in translating the Text, As he that throweth a Stone to Mercury's Heap; so is he that giveth Honour to a Fool. The payment of Honour, where it is not due, is compared to the blind Idolatry of the Gentiles in worshipping Mercury by throwing Stones to his consecrated Pile.  
This is the account of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Homer, Odyss. 16. which was an elevated place in that City of Ithaca, from whence Eumaeus saw the Rivals of Ulysses returning.  
— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Eustathius upon this place informs us, that Demosthenes the Thracian, who wrote a Paraphrase upon Homer (long since lost) concludes, that the place where Eumaeus had this prospect, and which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, had its name from the Ceremonies of Mercury. He reports it to signify besides a heap of Stones in the Highway.  
Such were the Terminales lapides among the Romans, for showing the Bounds of their Lands, which 
* Lib. 4. the Coronis, c. 4.  Paschalius upon a Distich in the first Elegy of Tibullus observes to have been adorned with Crowns and Garlands.  
Although there was no Statue in the place, yet every Heap of Stones was Sacred. Which Heaps were increased by the superstitious Diligence of Passengers throwing Stones to them in Honour of Mercury. This Idolatrous Practice is mentioned in the Talmudic Book 
* Sanhed. c. 7.  Sanhedrin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that throws a Stone to Mercury, is a Person that commits Idolatry, for Mercury is thus worshipped.  
This Pagan Rite had its Original from a Fable of Mercury, which is not commonly met withal. The Story is, that when he had killed Argus, and was to be tried for the Fact in a Senate of the Gods, he pleaded Jupiter's Commission. The Gods were thereupon afraid to condemn him: and that they might not incur the displeasure of their King, they threw down those Stones, by which they were to give their Suffrages, at the Feet of the Criminal: which did not only discharge him from Punishment, but was likewise the occasion of the forementioned Ceremony, as well as the gathering of Votes in Judicature by Stones.  
This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does also signify an Altar erected to Mercury: or the Basis of his Image: or those Stones which shown the distances of Miles, and Furlongs: Mercury being, not only the Tutelar Deity, but said likewise to have been the first Officer for the Highways, and to have begun the clearing of them from great Stones. These Stones were laid together by the Ways side, and upon the foregoing account they were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mercurial Heaps.  
These remarks explain that old dark Inscription,  
Deo Merc—  
Viaco  
M. Attilius  
Silonis F.  
Quir. Silo  
Ex voto.  
We have here likewise an Illustration of that passage in the Epigram:  
— Apollinis arras  
Arcanumque Vii—  
This Arcanum Vii was the mysterious Religion of the Cabiris in Samothracia: of which Cabiri Mercury is reckoned for one, in that old Distich that recites them,  
Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars,  
Mercurius, Jovi', Neptunus, Vulnanus, Apollo.  
We are told by Drusius out of an Arabic Book against the Alcoran, that it was a Practice of the Indians, to pile up Stones in Honour of their Gods. From them it was carried over into Arabia: where the worshipping of Venus with the same Ceremony, was the only piece of Idolatry which Mahomet retained at Mecha. The Arabian Convert agrees to this Sense of Salomon's expression. Neither is the forecited Passage one of the weakest Arguments for our subscribing to S. Hierom's translating the Expression, Acervum Mercurii.  
Why we should not follow the Septuagint, and translate the Hebrew Word, a Sling, we have moreover these Reasons. That since the Hebrew Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a heap of Stones, since the Superstition of those Mercurial heaps was spread through the East many Ages before Solomon, since the very name of Mercury was form out of this Word Margemah; since Manetho, though a fabulous Writer, is confirmed by Josephus in his Opinion, That they were Seth's Pillars: To interpret the expression, As he that ties a Stone in a Sling, is a sense which those that are best acquainted with the Pagan Rites, and the Jewish Learning, cannot admit of as the most obvious, true, natural, and worthiest of the wise Author of the saying.  
Besides all this it is certain, that Margemah is of the same signification with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Markolis the Talmudic name of Mercury, and of his Image or Statue. They are used promiscuously by the oldest Jewish Writers. The Medrasch on the Proverbs thus paraphrases the passage, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever honours a Fool, is like him that throws a Stone to Mercury.  
This is not the only instance in the Old Testament, that shows the Antiquity of the Pagan Idolatry. Orion and the Pleyades are mentioned by Job: Whose youngest Daughter is called in the Hebrew, The Horn or Ray of Beauty, that is, says the version of the Seventy, The Horn of Amalthaea, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Job 42. 14.  
In the desolation of Babylon, Isai 13. 21, 22. it is said by the Vulgar Latin, and the Maronites, That Satyrs shall dance, and Sirens lodge there. sirens & Daemonia illic salt abunt.  
So likewise in Ezechiel's Vision, ch. 8. v. 14. At the North Door of the Temple, there sat Women lamenting Adonis, concluded by S. Hierom to be understood by Tammuz. Mulieres sedebant plangentes Adonidem.  
Now S. Gregory Nyssen in his ninth Homily on the Canticles, gives good satisfaction to those that wonder at the mention of Poetic Fables in the holy Oracles of God.   

PAge 19 There is a Pagan Empire on the further side of Asia.  
It is that Empire where all Nobility is from Worth and Knowledge, where none are born great but those of the Royal Family, where Men are honoured and advanced then only when they deserve to be so.  
The principal Sect among them, called Jukia, hath no other charge, but to mind the business of Government, and the practice of Moral Virtues.  
This people, the Inhabitants of Cathaia, and the Northern China, have little Philosophy that is considerable, besides Morality. Their chief Science is the Moral Contemplation of Man: In which it is their business to consider the Offices of Princes and their Subjects, of Parents and Children, Husbands and Wives, Brethren and Friends. They have three thousand Rules concerning Decency, Civility, Modesty, and the Virtues of that Rank. Prudence is one of their most admired Virtues: And next to that they esteem Courage, when it is employed in the conquest of ourselves.  
They value Justice, because it directs us to look into ourselves, when we determine any thing referring unto others: In which they place the highest degree of Humane Perfection. They say they are lovers of Virtue for no other Reason, but because it is its own abundant Recompense. They do not concern themselves in any inquiries about future matters; alleging, they have not yet attained the knowledge of those things that are before their Eyes.  
They understand little, and dote very much in Natural Philosophy. They hold a double Metempsychosis, that of Pythagoras, and the transmigration of the Soul into new Passions and Desires. They affirm all the Events of this Life to be Good or Evil, according to our Opinion and Judgement of them.  
The great things that are reported of them are credible enough, if it can be made out, That they are the Posterity of the old Seres: Quos Lusitani perperam Sinas appellarunt, says the very learned Mr. Is. Vossius in his late Tract, De Art. & Scientiis Sinarum: And when we receive the account of their Socrates, that Divine Philosopher Cumfusu.  
Now Ptolemy, Mela, Pliny, Strabo, Salinus, Dionysius and others, make the Country of the Seres to border Southward upon India without Ganges, and to be that very Tract which is now called China. Pliny taking notice of the simplicity of their Manners, says, they are very unlike their Neighbours the Scythians.  
Those very places which Ortelius, Mercator, and the generality of Modern Geographers make the Boundaries of China, are named by the Ancients as the Confines of Serae. Ptolemy sets their Country (whose Metropolis, he says, was called Sera) in the Neighbourhood of Scythia, on the outside of the Mount Imaus, next India without Ganges, and on the further side of Asia. The same situation is given them by Ammianus Marcellinus, who asserts their Country to reach Southward as far as India, Ganges and the forenamed Mountain Imaus. In Pomponius Mela, we find the Serae, and the Chineses to be the same people: And that the Persians and Saracens call the Inhabitants of Cathaia, Seres. Solinus carries us through the Scythian and Eastern Ocean to this Country; which Pausanias says, derives its name from the Worms that supply the Inhabitants with Silk, which according to him and others, as we find in Suidas, are called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Seres.  
This appears further from their great plenty of Silk, and their skill in weaving it: Which was first called Serica, from their Country. Their Art is thus set out by Dionysius in his Periegesis, v. 755.  

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

Weaving rich coloured Robes they Flowers strew,  
Such as Dame Nature's Tapestry does show,  
Such as the Spider's finest Art outgo.   
There have been those Opinions, and Reports of their great Antiquity, that might give some occasion to the vast Extravagancies of the Chinese Chronology. They are the oldest people that were known to Pliny: Primi sunt hominum qui noscantur Seres, is his account of them. And Tertullian in his Book De Cultu foem. says they were Weavers, Ab initio rerum, from the beginning of the World. Primos hominum Seres cognoscimus, are the Words of Julius Solinus, The Seres we know to be the first Generation of Men.  
Besides this, the exact similitude of Temper, in the Historical Accounts of both, is a sufficient Argument of their being the same people. The best description of the Seres, we have from Eusebius in these Words: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Law of the Seres is against Murdering, Whoring, Thieving, and all worshipping of Images. And in that most spacious Country you shall not see a Shrine, a Fornicatress, an Adultress, a Thief arraigned, a Murderer tried, a Man slain. (He goes on disputing against Fate.) The Influence of Mars belching Fire from the midst of Heaven, hath never forced the Liberty of any man's Will to give a fatal Stab to another. The Conjunction of Venus and Mars did never force any Man in that Region to an adulterous Embrace, though Mars is there to be seen in the midst of the Heavens every day, and in every hour of the day there are Children born among the Seres.  
The like Citation of Vigerus in a Note upon this Passage, may be supposed to be taken from an Author of good Credit and Antiquity, though he does not name him.  
That the Seres were the Ancestors of the Chinese, appears in other Instances. The Chineses wear no Weapons, travel without Arms, and have little or no esteem for Soldiers. The like account we have from Strabo of the Seres: that they reckoned it a crime for men to exercise themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the Arts of War. He likewise mentions their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their Frugality, and Healthfulness. As Lucian, when he speaks of the most long-lived Nations, names the Seres in the first place, and ascribes their Longevity to their Temperance.  
Ammianus Marcellinus tells us they lived quietly, Strangers to Arms and Wars, nulli finit imorum molesti, troublesome to none of their Neighbours, the most frugal of all Nations in a most plentiful Country, that they studied the tranquillity of Life, and avoided the Conversation of the rest of Mankind.  
Mites quidem, says Pliny of them, they were meek People, but fled from Strangers like Beasts, and had no Communication of Language with any other Country. To which Solinus adds, that they traded with Merchants without verbal Conference, Mercium pretia oculis aestimantes, buying and selling with their Eyes, and allowing Merchants only to cross their first River. This is the same Character that we find of them in Stephanus de Vrbibus, namely that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a People that would not mingle with other Societies.  
This shieness and aversion to Strangers was found to be the temper of the Chinese by Marcus Paulus Venetus, who first discovered them to the Europaeans; and is confirmed by many others, who give us surprising Relations of the Innocence and Honesty of the Chinese in the days of their great Master of Morals CUMFUSV, and in the Ages after him.  
The Chinensian Socrates CUMFUSV, by the Precepts of his admirable Philosophy, did work a perfect Reformation in the Manners of the People. He restored the use of Weights and Measures, the decence of Funerals, the duty of Children in maintaining their indigent Parents, and the Integrity of Merchants in their Affairs. He prevailed with the Men of the Age to be just and kind; and the Women to be chaste, humble, and quiet.  
He brought the whole Empire to the Temper of a single well-ordered Family. They had for one another the tenderness of Parents, the affections of Brethren, and the sincerity of the best Friends. Nothing could be lost in the Country: but whatever was dropped upon the Highway, was always left there by those that found it, for the returning Owner.  
Strabo says as much of the Seres in the same Age, that they had the strictest Justice, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Process even against bad Language. That they should so far exceed their Posterity the modern Chineses, who are now lascivious, malicious, and false Pretenders to Virtue, will be no matter of wonder to us, when we shall have considered either the Doctrine or the Person of their excellent Tutor, the oriental Socrates, the Divine CUMFUSV.   

He thus gins his first Book.  
TÁ HIŎ CHĪ TÁO SÁI MIM̑ MIM̑ JĔ SAÍ SIN ḾIǸ SAÍ CHÍ YŪ XEŃ CHĪ CHÌ HEÚ YEÙ TIḾ TĪM HEÚ NEM̑ SIM̀ SIḾ LH HEÚ NÉM̀ NGĀN NGĀN LH HEÚ NÉM̀ LIÚ̇ LIÚ̇ LH HEÚ NEM̑ TĔ UÆ̆ YEÙ PUEǸ MŎ MŎ SÚ YEÙ CHŪḾ XÌ CHĪ SÒ SIĒN HEÚ SÉ KIŃ TÁO Ỳ. etc.  
The intent of great Men in Knowledge and Instruction, does consist in the enlightening of our Spiritual Power conveyed to us from Heaven, by the Virtues. It does consist in renewing the World by Exhortation and Example. It consists in settling firmly upon the chiefest good. When People know wherein they are to settle, than they have the end. When they have resolved themselves in the end, than they can be at rest. When their mind is at rest, than they can strengthen it. When they have strengthened the Mind, than they can distinguish Good from Evil. When they have made this distinction, than they can attain the end, by acting according to Reason. There is in things that which is more and less Excellent, as the Body and the Branches in the Tree. Affairs have an end and a beginning. To obtain effectively the perfection of Good, is the end; to know where we are to settle firmly, is the beginning. To know those things that are to be preferred, and those that are to be undervalved, is to approach to the knowledge of great Men.  
His next Paragraph is this.  
When the Ancients would make proof of the Spiritual Power in Government, they took care in the first place to govern their Kingdoms well: when they would govern their Kingdoms well, their first care was the right ordering of their Families: when they would order their Families well, it was their first business, to attire their own Persons with the Ornaments of Virtue: when they would deck themselves with the Virtues, they first fashioned their Hearts: when they would fashion their Hearts, they first confirmed their Intentions in the banishing of every disguise: when they would confirm their Intentions, they would first enlarge their Understandings: which enlargement of the Understanding, consisteth in the comprising of Matters, in forecasting business, in making a convenient provision for every present occasion; or rather by penetrating that most perfect Harmony of Nature in Humane Reason. For when Matters are dived into, the perfection of Knowledge is attained: when the perfection of Knowledge is attained, the Intention is confirmed: when the Intention is confirmed, the Heart is rightly managed: when the Heart is managed, the Man is completed: when the Man is completed, the Family is rightly ordered: when the Family is rightly ordered, than the Kingdom is well governed: when our Kingdoms are well governed, the Empire will be also peaceable and calm.  
This is the beginning of the first Treatise in the former part of CVMFVSV's Works, being a Discourse concerning the Perfection of Man, and of Government. In his other Tracts, there are many excellent Moral Discourses, the stile whereof shows the Chinese Eloquence to consist chief in Climaxes.  
His Writings have less Art, but more of the true Spirit of Morality, than is to be found in Plato himself, and the most esteemed of the old Greek and Roman Moralists. He has other Books of Dialogues, Odes, Sentences, and Moral Dissertations. He wrote the Annals of the Chinese Kings from Fohi, who according to their Chronology lived before Moses. He wrote of Political Virtues, of Court days and Vacations, of Presages; of the Rewards of good Men, and the Punishments of the Wicked: and upon many other Subjects. It was his Motto, Lay nothing upon another, that you would not bear yourself. Like a true Socrates, he asserted and worshipped the one true God. He commonly invoked Heaven, but in a Metonymical Sense. Which we have the more reason to believe, because the Chineses in his time had no Idols.  
He is thought to have prophesied of our Saviour Christ: for he would always disown his own Perfections, and refuse the Commendations of his Piety with this reply, SĪ FAM YEÙ XIḾ GIȖ, The Holy one is to be looked for in the West. Fifty years after our Saviour, one of their Emperors moved by this Tradition, and by a Dream, that there came and appeared before him out of the West a Godlike Man, sent some Persons of his Court to make enquiry after the true Law: who wanting either courage or skill to sail further than the Red-Sea, brought home, and first planted in China the Idolatry of the adjoining Countries.  
CUMFUSV was born above five hundred years before Christ, about the beginning of the Persian Monarchy, and probably was contemporary with Cyrus. At nineteen years of Age he married, and having in a few years buried his Wife, continued single.  
He never used Concubines, according to the Custom of his Country. His Life was every way answerable to his Discourses. His Moderation and Piety, his constant watchfulness over himself, his contempt of Riches, Honours, and Dangers, his unwearied Industry in propagating Moral Knowledge is to be read in his Books, as well as in the Stories of his Life.  
He is still had in so great Veneration by his Countrymen, that the great Office of Mandarin hath been always chosen out of his Family, which to this very Age hath been exempted from Tribute. His Books use to be read every where throughout the Country, and his Philosophy taught in all the principal Cities of China.  
There is an ingenious Merchant, a Fellow of the Royal Society, who hath put into the hands of one of his Colleagues, several of CVMFVSV's Books, brought from Siam, where they were printed, in order to an English Edition of them, and of a Lexicon and Clavis to the Language, and to a new World of Learning.  
The foregoing Specimen is sent abroad, to give some account of those great Rarities, and to quicken the publication of them; out of a just respect to the worthy Owner of the only Copies in this part of the World.   

PAge 23. That Christian Charity which thinketh no Evil.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1 Cor. 13. 5. Charity suspecteth no evil. Where the case is doubtful (says Grotius upon the place) it always interprets in the best Sense.  
It thinketh no evil either of Superiors, or Equals, where it sees none. According to the excellent temper of the Laws by which our Nation is governed; it presumes every Man to be good, who does not appear to be otherwise.  
But ever since Man degenerated, it hath been the greatest part of his temporal Misery, to esteem himself upright and wise, and other Men Villains and Sots. Which makes him disobedient to his Governors, and unjust to his Neighbours. He looks upon his Neighbours as Dotterels, and his Governors as Harpies. He reckons it as easy to catch the former, as difficult to escape the deadly Talons of the latter.  
Since the time that Men had reason to be afraid of one another, their Fears have undone them. Ever since they have been unable to govern themselves, they have been afraid of their Rulers: lest they should invade their Properties, and by altering their Religion, make way to their Civil Rights.  
Through the want of Christian Charity, and that Faith from whence it proceeds, People are so void of good Thoughts, and so full of jealous Surmises; they have so great a concern for their Pelf, and so little trust in the Providence of God, that when their Fortunes are as safe as if they were the only care of Heaven; for seditious Men to convince them that their Prince will have no regard to Rules and Constitutions, but intends to govern them by Arbitrary and lawless Administrations, they have no more to do, but only to tell them so.  
Upon the first strong report, they believe themselves to be Slaves: and indeed they are so, to their own Passions. They feel more smart from their own Fears, than they can suffer under the Whips of Infidels. For want of crueler Masters, they become Tyrants to themselves.  
Rags and Prisons with a quieter mind would be great Blessings to them. For they are of a Temper which makes Prosperity an Egyptian Plague. They that have nothing to lose are in a much happier condition. For Poverty is not so great an Evil, as the fear of falling into it.  
But the great Riddle is, that these Men should be wounded and tortured, by that which never touched them, by something at a distance from them, which they cannot prove by one Argument will ever be nearer: nay which hath nothing at all of Being, more than it received from their distempered Imaginations, yet frights and distracts them, more than any thing that is real and certain.  
It is indeed very strange for a Kingdom to be thunderstruck by an undiscernible clap of Tyranny that melts and consumes all the Rights of the People, and yet not one Man hurt in his Person or Fortunes.  
The true State of the Case is this. When the guilty Conscience tells a Man plainly what use he himself would make of Sovereign Power: when the Wretch hath done all the Mischief he can to his Inferiors; and has thought wickedly of his Prince, that he is altogether such an one as himself, 'tis no wonder that he fears Him first, and then hates Him.  
This is the account of all the Commotions, Tumults, Seditions, and Confusions that ever yet were, or perhaps ever will be raised by discontented or seduced Persons in all the Governments of the World. When designing Miscreants undertake the embroiling of their Country, the People ferment immediately upon the bare report of approaching Slavery.  
They believe all that is told them, unless it be then, when it happens that there is any thing of truth in the Relation. Where there is any just cause of suspicion and mistrust, they are everlastingly secure. It is an expense of thinking too great for their stock, to examine the following Particulars.  
Whether their Governors have not been injured by the malicious and crafty Insinuations of some bad Men?  
Whether they have any better, or other Argument than their own confidence, that they are not imposed upon?  
Whether the Grievances which their Leaders make so great a noise with, be any other than the Necessities which their chargeable Vices have brought upon them?  
How it comes to pass, that the Evils which terrify and afflict them, which are said to grow and increase upon them every day, are commonly hushed and untalkt of, and laid asleep for such long Intervals, and never heard of but from Malcontents in some high Contest with the Government; that the popular clamour of Grievances should prove the most dangerous sort of Thunder, and never be heard but in times of great Heat?  
In a few words, what should be the reason, that in a Country which in its own Productions, and in foreign Supplies, in the easiness of its Government, in the Wealth, Safety, and Privileges of the People, exceeds all other upon the face of the Earth; in a time of Peace, and open Trade, and universal Prosperity, there should be those sudden hideous outcries of Grievances, pressing to death the Men that do not feel them, nor understand what is meant by the word, nor know what to complain of, till they are instructed by the idolised Mutineers?  
The Credulity, Fickleness, and Levity of the common People, have in all former Ages been the Engines with which politic Atheists have ruined the best Governments. Neither is it a Prophecy, but a clearer prospect of an effect in its unhappy Causes, to say, that scarce any Country will be embroiled hereafter without this old Artifice, without the help of this Weapon, which after all the execution it hath done in the World, is still as sharp as ever, and will never want an edge as long as there is Ambition and Revenge to whet it.  
This hath always been the temper of the Multitude, in all times and places by the just judgement of the Almighty upon their disobedience to God and Man.  
Upon any noise of Oppression and Tyranny, though the Alarm be never so false, the People fall immediately into the cold and hot Fits of an incurable State-Quartan, they are presently lightheaded, and presently after stark raving Mad.  
That the pretended danger of Tyranny and Slavery, or an Invasion of the People's Rights, Religious or Civil, hath been the chief, and for the most part, the only Incentive to all the Sedition that ever disturbed the Peace of Kingdoms and Commonwealths, in any Age or Country whose Records have come to our hands, may be concluded from the following Instances; and proved by thousands more, ready to be produced.   

THE INSTANCES.  

WHen Aristagoras was endeavouring to strengthen the Ionian Faction, being the Person who headed that People when they revolted from the King of Persia, he used this Topick, when he urged Cleomenes King of Sparta to join with him in his Rebellion. There is (says he) a design to introduce a despotical Government, and to seize the Ionian Liberties. Therefore in the name of the Grecian Gods, redeem the jonians from Slavery.  
When Hannibal invaded Italy, at his crossing the Alps, he made a long Speech to his Army. Which, when the Historian reported, he polished the sense of one part of it, in these Expressions. That Wealth which the Romans possess, and which hath been the vast Gain of so many triumphant Victories, 'tis all yours, and the owners of it into the bargain. Draw your Swords for those mighty Spoils in the name of the assisting Gods. We begin the War, and march into Italy with our infesting Banners, being like to prove as much the bolder Warriors, as the hopes are greater, and the Resolutions stronger in him that makes the Assault, than in the Man that opposes it. Besides our Courage is raised by Discontents, Wrongs, and Indignities. I, your Commander, in the first place, than you all that were to besiege Saguntum, should have been demanded to undergo the most exquisite Tortures. These Men, the cruelest, and proudest in the World, pursue their own ends in every thing that is Arbitrary.  
When the Athenians had begun a War with Syracuse, they endeavoured to bring over the Camarines to their Alliance. Hermocrates being then employed in the Embassy of Syracuse, alleges, that the Athenian Expedition would in the event be fatal, not only to Camarana, but to all Sicily. It is his whole business to lay open the Athenian Designs, beginning at the very Original of their Government. The Athenians (says he) come into Sicily, with that pretence which you have been told of, but with that intention which we all do now suspect: not to restore the Leontines to their Country, but indeed to make themselves Masters of ours. You have then your choice: either certain Slavery without the hazard of a War; or joint hopes with us of a Conquest, which will deliver you from those base Masters, and from our perpetual Enmity.  
When Mucianus a Malcontent under the Reign of Vitellius, had a design to set up another Emperor, he thus urged Vespasian to depose Vitellius, and to take upon him the Government. They that deliberate upon great Attempts, should first compute, whether that which they undertake is profitable to the Commonwealth, honourable to themselves, easy, or at least probable to be effected. O Vespasian! I invite you to an Imperial Charge, which will be as advantageous to the Public, as glorious to your self. We are not to encounter that acutest Wit of the deified Augustus, nor that most wary Experience of the aged Tiberius, nor the Family of Caius, or Claudius, or Nero, settled in the Government by long Possession. Besides the enduring of those, you did likewise yield to the Nobility of Galba. But to be still careless, and to suffer the Commonwealth to be infected, and destroyed, would be stupid sloth, though you were sure your Slavery would continue as safe, as it is ignominious.  
When the Lithuanians rebelled against the Roman Emperor Valentinian, he was assisted by the Franks in their Suppression: and he rewarded their Service by ten years' Exemption from their customary Tribute. Which time being expired, they refused to submit to their former Taxes. Hereupon the Emperor having fought, and defeated them, drove them out of their Country: insomuch that they were forced to follow their Commander Marcomir into a part of Germany, to which they gave the name of Franconia. Being assembled to consider what form of Government would be fittest for them, Quadrek, one of their greatest Lords, stands up at the Debate, and speaks thus in favour of Aristocracy. It is the hardest thing in the World to find a King or a Prince that is duly accomplished: but suppose we could be furnished with one that hath all the Perfections requisite to a Throne, yet there is danger still, that this Person, after some time, may come to make his Will his Law, and fall off to Licentiousness and Tyranny. After many of the common, and fully answered Arguments against Monarchy, he ends thus. But forasmuch as I find the Herald going to proclaim Pharamont King, and in so doing, to assist at the Funerals of the name of Franks, for my part, that my Eyes may escape the sight of that miserable fatal Ceremony, I will departed immediately into a voluntary Exile, in which I shall rather choose to end my days, than to live here, and see the Native Liberty of my Country destroyed, the Equity of the Laws trodden under foot, insulting Tyranny set up, and all of us reduced to endless Slavery. To this Harangue the Historian subjoins Pharamond's reply in an excellent defence of Monarchy. Amongst other things, he shows the Benefits of that Form of Government; and that the Liberty of the People consists in obeying their Prince: for which obedience they can no more be called Slaves, than those Seamen who in a Tempest observe the orders of their Pilot.  
When Count Candidian was commissioned by the Emperor Theodosius to keep the Peace and prevent Tumults at the Council of Ephesus: he being a great Favourer of the Nestorian Faction, gave order for stopping all Packets, both by Sea and Land, that no Letters might pass to inform the Emperor, or any other Person of what was transacted in the Synod. But he himself in the mean time, writes to the Emperor against Cyrill, and other Bishops. First he throws this Calumny upon them, that they were so overhasty in opening the Assembly, that they would not stay for the arrival of John Bishop of Antioch. Then he belies them, and says, that all the Bishops that were at Ephesus, were not at the Synod, that they were not all summoned, and that there were Differences among those that were present. With these Letters of Count Candidian, Nestorius sends his to the Emperor to the same effect and design, only with this difference, that Nestorius patched up more lies, which he set off with that variety of fair Pretences, that they would easily find belief with Persons unacquainted with the Proceed. That profligate Juggler, in his Epistle to the Emperor, represents himself, not only as a Professor of the Nicene Faith, but as a most resolute Defender of it: and craftily pretends, that he came to Ephesus purely upon that account. In relating the Transactions of the Synod, he gins with the foulest Lies. He denies that the Bishops of Egypt were willing to stay for John Bishop of Antioch, who had sent Messengers to give them notice that he should quickly arrive. He adds, that the Bishops of the contrary Party had acted Tyrannically, had given out Menaces, had dispersed their Guards about the City to raise Tumults, and that they came shouting to his House, and threatened to kill him. That the Leader of them all was Memnon Bishop of Ephesus. Then he complained that all the Churches of Ephesus were shut against him, and that he had not so much as the liberty to take the Communion. Upon these, and such like cunning Suggestions, he petitions the Emperor (for all his Designs and strongest Efforts drove at that) to issue out Orders for adjusting the number of the Synod: in which he pretended there were wanting two Bishops out of every Province. In the conclusion, as if he had been cruelly oppressed by the Orthodox, he ends his Letter with this Expression: If we cannot prevail for this, we desire only that care may be taken for our safe return to our several Habitations, for they threaten our very Lives. He was subtle in his request; desiring to be sent back to Constantinople, when he had been deposed from that See: a piece of Craft like his Petition for a new Council, when he was already condemned in one lawfully assembled. There subscribed with him to this Epistle, to gain him the greater Credit, nine Bishops, all rank Nestorians.  
When that Incendiary Catiline had plotted the Ruin of the Government, and of Cicero, in his Letter to Q. Marcius, among other things altogether as bad, he writes thus. We call God and Man to witness, that we have not armed ourselves either against our Country, or to invade others; but only to secure our own Persons from Injuries: whilst by the Prevalency and Cruelty of Usurers we are miserable, and necessitous: most of us are kept out of our Country, but all of us out of our Offices and Estates. There is not a Man among us, who according to his Hereditary Right, can have the Benefit of the Laws; or when he hath lost his Patrimony can keep his Liberty. We do not ask for Power or Riches, which are the Occasions of all the Wars and Contests that disturb Mankind, but for Liberty, which no good Man is willing to lose sooner than his Life. He encourages those that were engaged with him in his Conspiracy with these Expressions. What I have been contriving, I have told you separately: but since that Communication, every day, hath put my thoughts into a greater heat, when I have considered that condition of Life which we are to expect, unless we recover our Liberties. Rouse yourselves then! and open your Eyes upon that fair object you have so often wished to see, your Liberty. Your Affairs, your Opportunities, your Dangers, your Poverty, and the noble Spoils of War, will persuade you better than my Oratory. I offer myself to you to be either your General, or your Fellow-Soldier: neither my Mind, nor my Body shall ever be wanting to your Service. I hope I shall assist you in these Affairs as your Consul, unless I am wrong in my account, and that you are better prepared for Slavery than Empire.  
When the Mechanics of Florence, and especially the Weavers, were grown jealous of their Governors, in the Reign of the Emperor Charles the First: after many private Meetings in the night, one of the boldest of them exhorts his Companions to persevere in their Sedition with this Harangue. Were we now, my Fellow-Soldiers, to consider, whether we should betake ourselves to our Arms, whether we should fire the neighbouring Houses, and plunder the very Temples themselves, I should vote with those who would be for advising further upon it: and it may be, I should rather choose secure Poverty, than dangerous and uncertain Gains. But forasmuch as we have drawn our Swords, and committed very many Outrages, I suppose we have nothing else now to determine, but the course we shall take to defend ourselves till we can secure our Indemnity. I can easily believe that we had no ground but our Poverty for the Resolutions we have taken. Yet since the whole City is in an uproar, and all the Inhabitants are got together to destroy us, since there are so many extraordinary Assemblies of the Lords and Magistrates to contrive a way to ensnare us, and to make themselves strong enough to cut us off, there are two things especially that we are to take care of. One, that we may not be called to an account for what we have done within a few days past: the other, that for the time to come, we may live in a better enjoyment of our Liberties, and more to our contentment. Therefore that we may gain an Act of Pardon for our past Crimes, it is my opinion that we must commit new ones: which must be aggravated by Burning, Plundering, and such like Barbarities: in which we must get as great a number of Accomplices as we can. For where multitudes offend, it is rare to have particular Persons singled out for punishment. By this means a way will be opened for us, to gain those Points that will support our Liberties.  
When the Moors of Granada, under the conduct of Jacob Almansor the Saracen, were possessing themselves of the Provinces between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean, the event of the War was for a long time doubtful. And though the Moors were conquered in the Field, yet in their minds they remained impregnable. The greatest part of them, to secure their Goods and Estates, with the most execrable dissimulation, pretended to be Christians, and continued in Andaluzia. But pressed with the King's Edicts concerning Religion, and remaining obstinate in the Superstition of their Country, they retreated into the neighbouring Mountains, and lived by Theft and Robbery. France being then embroiled, and the Arms of Spain employed against the rebelling Netherlands. The Moors took this opportunity to appoint private Conventions. All Ages and Conditions of People among them, sent their Burgesses to Cales. There did they agree upon the methodizing, and timing their Conspiracy. It was ordered in their Assembly, that their design should be communicated by Widowers to Widowers, by Husbands to Husbands, and by young Bachelors to those of their own condition. The Season pitched upon is Winter, and Christmas judged the fittest time: when the nights are long, when the Solemnities of the Festival fill the Churches, and empty the Houses: when the King's Ships lay dispersed in several Havens, without Soldiers, and with a few Sailors: this was their fittest opportunity for descending from the Mountains without making a noise. They hold a Parliament: where Ferdinando Caguer thus applies himself to their Unconstancy and Fears. How long, O my Friends, Colleagues, and Fellow-Soldiers, shall we suffer ourselves to be baffled, by means of our slothfulness! How long shall the most petulant of Mankind treat us like People of a servile Condition, nay and worse than Slaves. Our Wives, Children, Estates, are wholly at their disposal: neither after so many Ages, and a Servitude embittered with the severest Pressures, does any hope of Liberty dawn upon us. New Burdens, new Contributions, new Taxes, are daily imposed upon us. As many Tenants as there are in the City, so many of the cruelest Tyrants do we feel galling our Necks. We miserable Wretches are forbidden commerce with God and Man. Among the Christians we pass for Moriscoes, and are charged with their abominable Errors: among the Moors we are suspected for Christians, insomuch that they will not give us a word, nor bestow an Alms upon us, nor make a Bargain with us. We therefore, because we keep our Faith, and purchase a miserable Life by a slavish Obedience, are afflicted on all sides: We are not more odious to one Party, than suspected by another.  
When the Milaneses had been at War with the Emperor Frederick for a long time, and with various Success; they were at length conquered, and their City besieged. Being forced to surrender upon Discretion, the Emperor, to prevent their future resistance, razed their City. Afterwards the principal Cities of Lombardy entered into a League, to rebuild and fortify Milan: whereunto they bond themselves by a Fanatic Oath, which contained an hypocritical Declaration of Faith and Allegiance to the Emperor. When this dutiful Rebellion was debated by the Deputies of the several Cities of Lombardy, in the Church of St. James at Pontida in Bresciano, they were settled in their design by the Discourse of Pinamonte Vimercato, in which there were these Passages. I do believe that every one of you Brethren, Friends, and Representatives of our most loving and faithful Allies, knows perfectly the Devastations, Ruins, Murders, Robberies and Violences acted upon every Sex and Age; the Gabels, Grievances, and Wrongs done us by Frederick, and other barbarous Persons commissioned by him, naturally Enemies to the Italian name. But forasmuch as this evil Plant is not yet fully rooted, I suppose our present Union may deliver us from the perpetuity of that Slavery which grows every day more Heavy and Cruel.   

The Parallel, Instances in the beginning, and Progress of the late Rebellion.  
THE Lord Digby in his Speech for triennial Parliaments, Jan. 19 1640. complains that The Liberty and Property of the Subject, is fundamentally subverted, and ravished away by the violence of a pretended Necessity.  
Mr. Bagshaw in the beginning of his Speech against Episcopacy, Feb. 9 1640. says it does entrench upon the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, as well as those of the Crown.  
Mr. Waller in his Speech before the Commons 1640. upon the King's demand of a Supply, hath this Passage: Let us give new Force to the many Laws which have been heretofore made for the maintaining of our Rights and Privileges; and to restore this Nation to its fundamental and vital Liberties, the Propriety of our Goods, and freedom of our Persons.  
Denzill Holles at a Committee of both Houses in the Painted Chamber May 4. 1641. speaks these words: They find (viz. the Commons) Jesuits and Priests conspiring with ill Ministers of State to destroy our Religion: they find ill Ministers conjoined together to subvert our Laws and Liberties.  
Sir Henry Vane in his Speech for abolishing Episcopacy urges, that it is prejudicial to the Civil State, as having so powerful and ill an Influence upon our Laws, the Prerogative of the King, and the Liberties of the Subject.  
In the Articles against Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Lord Bishop of Derry, Sir Gerrard Lowther, and Sir George Radcliffe, this was the Leader, that they intending the Destruction of the Commonwealth of this Realm, have traitorously confederated and conspired together to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom, and in pursuance thereof, they and every of them have traitorously contrived, introduced and exercised an arbitrary and tyrannical Government against Law throughout this Kingdom, by the Countenance and Assistance of Thomas Earl of Strafford, then chief Governor of this Kingdom.  
The first Article of the Impeachment of the Lord Keeper Finch was, that the said John Lord Finch hath traitorously and wickedly endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and established Government of the Realm of England, and instead thereof, to introduce an arbitrary, tyrannical Government against Law, which he hath declared by traitorous and wicked Words, Counsels, Opinions, Judgements, Practices and Actions.  
The same Article gins the Impeachment of the Earl of Strafford, after the reading whereof, Mr. Pym in his Speech upon it, hath these words: If this Treason had taken effect, our Souls had been enslaved to the spiritual Tyranny of Satan; our Consciences to the Ecclesiastical Tyranny of the Pope; our Lives, Persons, and Estates to the Civil Tyranny of an arbitrary, unlimited, confused Government.  
The Speeches in the Parliament of the Third year of King Charles the First, delivered by Sir Francis Seymour, Sir Robert Philip's, Sir Benj. Rudyard, and many others, which are of the same note and strain with those already mentioned, are more easily met with: and therefore the Reader is referred to them in the first Volume of Mr. Rushworth's Collections.  
Those of Oliver Cromwell are greater Rarities: and therefore it will not be amiss to pick out some of the Flowers in two or three of them.  
His Speech in the Painted Chamber at his dissolving the Parliament Jan. 22. 1654. hath these fine strokes.  
Page 17. Religion was not the thing at the first contended for: but God brought it to that Issue at last, and gave it unto us by way of Redundancy: and at last it proves to be that which was most dear unto us: and wherein consisted this, more than in obtaining that Liberty from the Tyranny of Bishops, to all Species of Protestants, to worship God according to their own Light and Consciences?  
Page 18. Those that were sound in the Faith, how proper was it for them to labour for Liberty, for a just Liberty, that Men should not be trampled upon for their Consciences!  
Page 27.— Though some may think it a hard thing, without Parliamentary Authority to raise Money; yet I have another Argument, from the good of the People of this Nation, if they would be safe, and have no better Principle: whether they prefer the having of their will, though it be to their destruction, rather than comply with things of necessity: that will excuse me.  
Page 28. The People will prefer their Safety to their Passions, and their real Security to Forms, when necessity calls for Supplies. Had they not been well acquainted with this Principle, they had never seen this day of Gospel-Liberty.    

Cromwell 's Speech to the Parliament in the Painted Chamber, Sept. 4. 1654. hath this remarkable Sentence.  
— IT would have been worthy such a meeting as this, to have remembered that which was the rise, and gave the first beginning to all these turn and toss that have been upon us: to have given you a Series of the Transactions (not of Men but) of the Providence of God, all along unto our late Changes: as also the ground of our first undertaking to oppose that Usurpation and Tyranny that was upon us in Civils and Spirituals.  
His Speech to the Parliament in the Painted Chamber Sept. 12. 1654. supplies us with these Imitations of the old wheedling Cant.  
— Speaking of the Government he says, If God will not bear it up, let it sink. Then speaking of the Long Parliament, When they were dissolved (says he) there was not so much as the barking of a Dog.  
— Poor Men, under this Arbitrary Power, were driven like Flocks of Sheep, by forty in a Morning to the Confiscation of Goods and Estates, without any Man being able to give a reason that two of them had deserved to forfeit a Shilling.  
— So than what was the business? It was a Conversion from a Parliament, that should have been perpetual, to a legislative Power always sitting: and the Liberties, Interests, and Lives of the People, not judged by any certain known Laws and Power, but by an Arbitrary Power, which is incident and necessary to Parliaments: to make men's Estates by an Arbitrary Power liable to Confiscation, and their Persons to Imprisonments; sometimes by Laws made after the Fact committed: often by taking the judgement both in Capital and Criminal things to themselves, who in former times were not known to exercise such a Judicature.  
— And as I have appealed to God before you already, I know (and I hope I may say it) though it be a tender thing to make Appeals to God; yet in such Exigencies as these, I trust it will not offend His Majesty: especially to make them before Persons that know God, and know what Conscience is, and what it is to lie before the Lord. I say, that as a principal end in calling that Assembly, was the settlement of the Nation, so a chief end to myself was, that I might have opportunity to lay down the Power that was in my hands. I say it to you again, in the presence of that God who hath blessed and been with me in all my Adversities and Successes; that was to myself the greatest end.  
A desire perhaps (and I am afraid) sinful enough, to be quit of the Power God had most providentially put into my hands, before he called for it, and before those honest ends of our fight were attained and settled. I say the Authority I had in my hand, being so boundless as it was, I being by Act of Parliament General of all the Forces in the three Nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland (in which unlimited condition I did not desire to live a day) did call that Meeting for the ends before expressed.  
The Preamble to the Protestation chargeth the Government with endeavours to subvert the Fundamental Laws of England and Ireland, and to introduce the Exercise of an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government.  
The Petition of the Londoners against Episcopacy, complains, That the said Government is found, by woeful Experience, to be a main cause and occasion of many foul Evils, Pressures, and Grievances of a very high nature unto His Majesty's Subjects, in their Consciences, Liberties, and Estates.  
That Masterpiece, and Idea of Sedition, the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom, extant in Husband's Collections, and elsewhere, hath this vein of Rhetoric running through all the parts of it.  
That Mystery of Iniquity, and foul Scandal to the Reformation, the solemn League and Covenant, expresses all along a most passionate concern for the Liberties of the People.  
The Petition of the Lord Mayor, aldermans, and Common-Council of London in Jan. 41. Which presses that the Tower may be put into the hands of Persons of Trust, etc. represents their great Dangers, Fears, and Distractions, upon account of Designs driving on, which tend to the utter ruin of the Protestant Religion, and of the Lives and Liberties of His Majesty's Loyal Subjects.  
The Petition of the Lord Fairfax and the Army to the House of Commons Jan. 15. 1649. hath these words. Having by our late Labours and Hazards made it appear to the World, at how high a rate we value our just Freedom, and God having so far owned our Cause, as to deliver the Enemies thereof into our hands, we do hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other, to take the best care we can for the future, to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish Condition, and the chargeable remedy of another War.  
What these Wretches meant by their Freedom, Right, Liberty, and Property, they did not fail to explain in a little time: when they usurped and exercised a sovereign, unlimited, and absolute Power over the King himself, and all his Subjects: when the Protestation was a sufficient Law, to enforce the bringing in of Money, Plate, and Arms for the Service of the Commonwealth: when there were Ordinances made for Sequestering the Estates of those who persisted in their Loyalty and Duty to the King: when they seized the Revenues of the Crown, and the Church: when they raised Money without the King's Authority, to carry on a Rebellion against him: when they maintained their Army with free Quarter: when they revived a distinction declared to be Treason by two Acts of Parliament, the distinction between the King's natural and political Capacity; between his Person, and his Power or Authority: when they distinguished between the equitable and literal sense of the Law, to give liberty to the Subject, to interpret the King's Laws according to his own pleasure, and to justify all contempt and disobedience: when they asserted the Legislative and Judicative Power to be in the two Houses of Parliament without the King: lastly when they declared themselves to be the irrevocable trusties of the People's Lives, Liberties and Properties, without being obliged to give an account of their Trust.  
What remains, is only the Reader's business: which is to compare the late Occurrences in this Kingdom with the foregoing Parallels. Whoever does so, if he be not blinded by Prejudice, will quickly find, that it is no new thing, for Men to pass among the Ignorant for great Patriots who have razed out of their minds all natural sense of Honour and Honesty; for Vermin, and the Pests of Humane Society, to set up for Heroes, and the Saviour's of their Country; and then for the popular Herd to be led away to their Ruin, by the breath of Panthers, and the smooth faces of Harpies.  
It must therefore be needless to add any thing further upon this Argument, more than the following Consideration.  
As there are at this day, and have been in former Ages, though in a very small proportion to good Monarches, Tyrants in many parts of the World, so it is at this present, as it hath been always heretofore, the hard Fate of the best Princes, to be tormented with the Jealousies of their Subjects: to be charged with the affectation of Tyranny, then constantly, when there is the least ground for it: to be always as much mistrusted by the crazy-headed Rabble while they live, as they are pitied and admired when they are dead.  
Now it is likewise the same uncharitable corrupt Temper, which renders the People as vexatious to their fellow Subjects, as they are to their Sovereign.  
The number is strangely small of the Men, who have any regard to those Principles of everlasting Righteousness, which hinder us from tearing and destroying one another: of those few that have, and are the wisest, because the best of Men, there is not one of many hundreds, who considers the mischief this is done to the World, by the easiness of most Persons, in receiving, and uttering scandalous Reports.  
Some People think to make themselves great, by lessening or undermining others: but of those that design it, there are very few who succeed.  
Injustice and Calumny are equally pernicious to the World in general, and to the Men that manage by those Arts. For till Integrity and Charity become the universal Resolution of Mankind; till the Experiment comes to be tried, whether Sincerity, Justice, and Benignity, are not better Measures than Deceit and Malice, surer and readier ways to Prosperity, the World can never be happy: and therefore it is too probable, that it will remain to its Dissolution, a Mass of Sin and Misery.  
The Author's Misfortunes are too little to come into this account. Yet those two reports which were raised upon his Preaching the foregoing Sermon, should not be quite forgotten. One was concerning his Dress, the other about the delivery of his Sermon. As to the former, it is a matter of Dispute between Persons of different Years and Tempers, who can never agree upon the Point of Decency in Attire. But what it is to read a Sermon, both young and old, the Candid and the Morose, the Spiteful and the Kind, do all agree in their Verdict, however they are divided in the other Case.  
Now, whenas the preceding Sermon, which was spoken as readily without Book, as any thing perhaps, that hath been delivered before His Majesty (which is well enough remembered at the Court) was said to be read word for word, and that report, as false as it was, divulged and credited in all parts of the Kingdom, it supplies us with the following Conclusion.  
If a private Person may at any time be brought upon the Stage, and exposed to the censure of the World, by Men as little as himself; it is no wonder a Government should be suspected and endangered, when great, united, subtle Factions, make it their business to misrepresent it: when its Friends are modest, slow, unactive, and secure: when its Enemies are bold, restless, and implacable: when the People are distrustful, fickle, conceited, petulant, and mutinous, to that degree of madness, that if the Devil of Sedition goes out of them for a while, and the unclean Spirit walks through the dry places that were lately covered with Blood, and a torrent of Miseries, he can find no rest, till he returns to his House from whence he came out: that House, where he roars out his pretended Fears of Superstition and Slavery, in those hideous yells which fright the common People out of their Wits. When he cometh to the House, he findeth it empty, and swept, and garnished too with the fairest Pretences for Religion, Law, Right, Liberty, and Property. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other Apostate Spirits, a select number of corrupt and disgraced Ministers of State: they enter into the House, and dwell there; and the last State of that miserable possessed People, is worse than the first.    

ERRATA.  
Page 3. l. 6. r. part. p. 9 l. 4. r. Arias Montanus, etc.  
THE END.